MACH, a provider of cloud-based managed communication services, recently announced the launch of its M2M Revenue Protection Solution, which is designed to help M2M (Machine-to-Machine) service providers reduce losses from fraud and malicious activity on their networks, including SIM cloning, call selling, and Denial of Service attacks, while reducing losses caused by human error.

As the M2M market grows, so too do the fraudulent threats posed to M2M service providers' businesses, says MACH (Queensland, Australia). Analysys Mason[2] has forecast that the total number of M2M connections will grow from 62 million in 2010 to 2.1 billion devices in 2020, at a 36% year-on-year growth rate. Machina Research[3], meanwhile, has predicted that M2M connections will make up around 19% of total mobile connections by 2020, with mobile operators set to take $53 billion of the $945 billion M2M market. With such a large market the potential of losses to fraud and malicious attacks represents a considerable sum of money.

"As the M2M market matures, the potential impact of fraud is becoming clear. M2M devices are generally located in exposed locations, susceptible to SIM card theft, while host machines can be targeted by hackers going through individual devices,” says Joseph George, Director Product Management, Fraud & Revenue Assurance at MACH. “Simple human error is also an issue and can lead to services not being billed properly. Such issues can lead to significant revenue losses for M2M operators.”

According to MACH, the new fraud protection service can immediately spot suspicious SIM activity and block the card. Suspicious activity could include the theft of a card, where it is suppose to be in a fixed location but instead starts to move. It could also include a SIM [4]commuting with points that it is not designed to communicate with.

According to James Stewart, Fraud Product Manager at MACH, a real life example happened in South Africa, where SIM cards on traffic lights where stolen and used to make premium calls.

MACH can also analyze revenue flows to ensure that all services are being billed correctly and that no fraudulent provisioning has taken place, says the company.

The service protects service providers by mapping IMSIs to machine ID numbers, providing an alert or SIM block when a mismatch occurs. Geographical and time checks on call patterns, meanwhile, prevent the SIMs from moving beyond preset locations, helping to prevent fraud brought about through SIM [4]theft. The service can also check for password cracking signatures and block SIMs based on the likelihood of a potential hack. Pattern recognition is also applied to alert the service provider if the contracted usage pattern starts to change, says MACH.

MACH's complete M Protect Fraud Protection and Revenue Assurance portfolio protects fixed and mobile operators and service providers across both international and domestic environments, according to the company. It is a cloud-based managed model that allows it to provide services based entirely on an OPEX model.